James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Friday, May 23, 2008

If Frederic Church booked a seat on a modern airline, what would he think of the view out the window? How would he respond to a landscape of pure clouds with no terrestrial foreground?

Early in his career Church painted this scene based on the sunrise view from the eastern scarp of the Catskill Mountains. It has the feeling of being detached from the ground, but there are still vestiges of rocks and trees beneath our feet.

A couple months ago I sat atop Storm King, a mountain overlooking the Hudson River near the cities of Newburgh and Beacon. As I sketched, I found myself unconsciously wanting to invent a repoussoir element in the foreground to give the viewer something to hang onto.

I was thinking of Caspar David Friedrich’s famous painting of the wanderer above the sea of clouds. He puts us on the dizzy heights with the world below almost swallowed up in vapors.

5 comments:

Thanks for sharing these interesting cloudscape artists. I've always loved cloudscapes, I often find myself wishing I had my camera with me on afternoons when the golden hour's skies are particularly amazing.

Art wise, I've always admired Jennifer Miller's paintings of skies- you might want to take a look, they're very captivating.

Great observations, J. F.E. Church is the prince among landscape painters, IMHO. I could spend hours in front of THE ICEBERGS, HEART OF THE ANDES, COTOPAXI, etc. -- in fact, I have done so! And I envy you your easy access to the countryside that so inspired him...

Hi James! What a great post, I really enjoyed that. I'm fascinated by clouds, I'm always painting them over and over in whatever which way I can. Eric Orchard directed me to your blog, I'll be back again. Thanks!Ambera